Rise of the singletons

July 02, 2010

The shape of Australian households is changing, driven by a combination of ageing as well as demographic and societal trends.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, reveal that while family households are set to increase nearly four times over and still be the biggest group, the biggest increase will be with people living on their own. That group will increase by more than 90% by 2031 and will represent more than 30% of all households. The rapid increase of people living on their own would be due mainly to the ageing of the population. But it’s also being driven by societal forces. As Lixia Qu, a research fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies told the Sydney Morning Herald, much of this is also the result of the increase in cohabitation and divorce rates since the 1960s. 'Financially, people are more able to live alone than in the past. Community attitudes have changed,'' said Ms Qu.

We are seeing the rise of loners and what some would call “singletons”. If more people are going to living on their own with the ageing population and marriage increasingly being seen by some as a temporary phase, how will this reshape society? And are we ready for the changes?

Certainly the ageing of the population continues to be an issue. It’s something I alluded to in my blogs here, here and here

Alternatively, the issue is summed up nicely in this video from The Zimmers

As KPMG demographer Bernard Salt puts it in the Sydney Morning Herald link above, these are not young, sexy singles but sad, lonely old baby boomers. We’re talking here about the widowed, separated and divorced.

Maybe that’s true. Still, I’m not entirely sure that loneliness is the problem. I’ve always agreed with Jean Paul Sartre’s observation that if you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company. It’s important to like your own company. But then, I’ve been with Mrs Management Line for 26 years.

At the same time, there are lots of people out there who choose to be alone and there’s nothing wrong with that. As reporter Carol Nader says, it can be great for those with the means to choose life on their own. More freedom and autonomy and no hassles about issues like cleaning and where you are going.

Still, you can look at this in the context of the other trend which, as reported here, shows that while fewer are divorcing, more people are walking away from long term relationships, presumably after the kids have grown and left home. While 20% of divorces involved marriages of 20 years or more in 1990, that figure had grown to 28% by 2008.

One famous long-standing couple that has recently split has been Al and Tipper Gore who split after 40 year together . It’s all part of an increasing trend. As Jeffrey Zaslow reports in The Wall Street Journal, there is a view that marriage was designed for a time when people died in their 40s and 50s. Now, they live well beyond that, their children are grown and for some, marital sex might be a vague memory so the break-up of long term marriages is likely to become an increasing trend. Zaslow writes: “People are living longer, and they're less willing to spend their last decades with someone who leaves them unfulfilled. At the same time, working wives are less dependent on husbands for financial support, and husbands have Viagra and other new incentives to find other romances.”

The growth in the number of people divorcing after many years of marriage will result in more singletons. More people living on their own, either through divorce, separation or becoming widowed, will change many things. For a start, there might be less demand for larger four bedroom homes further out from the city.

But it might also have an impact on people’s sense of well being. Research out of Britain shows that people say they are lonelier because of the modern way of life, and that it’s getting worse. If that’s right, it would suggest the growing trend of people on their own will have an impact on society.

Or will it? How do you see this trend? Are more people on their own? Are you? How have you found the transition? How do you find livign on your own? Are people lonelier now?

Post a comment

Comments Terms & Conditions

When posting comments on our blogs, you agree to be bound by our terms and conditions.
Comments that are offensive, defamatory, unsuitable or that breach any aspects of the terms and conditions will be deleted.

Recent comments

Professor Rosseforp

July 02, 2010

08:06 AM

I definitely see a rise in the number of news stories with tags like, "I hadn't seen him for a year but I didn't know he was dead next door", "We noticed a buildup of mail and a bad smell about a year ago, but heard his television every night so thought he was okay".

single older woman

July 02, 2010

12:59 PM

If Bernard Salt's comment is accurate, and I think it is, then we need to build affordable housing in areas with good social infrastructure for the older woman who is no longer working full time. Stonnington has better social infrastructure for older women than outer areas like Casey.

I think the description of 'sad, lonely old baby bommers' indicates much of the problem in that people like Bernard Salt assume that couples are happy and singles are not. Not necessarily so. But what does need to be acknowledged is that as a society we need to start thinking about things like housing and communities. Single people don't necessarily want big houses but intelligent housing that creates communities so someone can be there to look after the pets when you go on holiday. A bit of garden and a community are essentail to enable single people to live independently and safely, and allowed to have pets. Mixed in with couple and families of course. And why do couple always assume single people are rich? The truth is that because of a lack of suitable housing older single people end up paying the same as couples. I'm 56, quite happily single, and don't wish to share a house with strangers but I do wish to have my pets. This is the difficulty that is faced by many and it's about time that councils and planners acknowledge that the right to have pets and to have suitable housing should not be restricted to married couples with 2.4 children.

Clare

July 03, 2010

08:22 AM

I think there's quite a bit of literature on the current fate of older couples after divorce/separation. Women in particular do badly financially (especially if they have not got adequate superannuation) and men do worse socially, if they have relied on their wives and the family unit for basic needs (cooking, cleaning) and social activity.

Hopefully we can prevent this. Both with forward-thinking policies to ensure women who take significant time off from work aren't disadvantaged in terms of superannuation, come retirement (because we *value* childrearing); and with more egalitarian attitudes towards workload distribution in the home, so that men are also well equipped to fend for themselves in the event they separate from their partners after many years.

The fact that living alone for young people now is a no-brainer compared with 50 years ago suggests that the social element of separation won't be quite as hard to deal with, although rebuilding connections is always difficult.

In my experience, less car-dependent societies are more socially connected societies. That would be a good start.

eve

July 04, 2010

10:21 AM

Despite trying absolutely everything, I manage to find about one date every five years. Yep, it's a lonely world. Eve

Whiskers

July 04, 2010

07:51 PM

Hallelujah! Hopefully we will stop hearing politicians continually refer to 'working families' and 'mums and dads at home'

Rise the Singleton!

Comments Terms & Conditions

When posting comments on our blogs, you agree to be bound by our terms and conditions.
Comments that are offensive, defamatory, unsuitable or that breach any aspects of the terms and conditions will be deleted.

Leon Gettler is a contributor to The Age, specialising on management issues. His interests include business ethics, corporate governance and the intricacies of the US Sarbanes-Oxley ruling. He is the author of two books, including Organisations Behaving Badly: A Greek tragedy of corporate pathology, which focuses on the forces that lead smart executives to make dumb decisions.